Seven Reasons God Sends Affliction

Every affliction upon the servants of God has some special goodness in it. This is a ground of comfort for the Christian. “We know that all things work together for good unto them that love God” (Rom. 8:28). And in regard hereof, the crosses which are endured by God’s children, are so far from being prejudicial to their salvation, that they are rather helps and a furtherance of the same. Now this goodness is perceived two ways: first, by the fruits and effect of it; and, second, by the quality and condition thereof. In both respects, afflictions are good.… Read More Seven Reasons God Sends Affliction

The Successive Steps of Going Astray

It rarely, if ever, happens, that the heart throws off at once all the restraints of virtue, and plunges suddenly into the depths of vice. It is not by one stride, that the moral youth passes from sober habits at home to those of an opposite nature abroad—but generally by slow and successive steps. The judgment and conscience would recoil from a temptation which proposed to him to become profligate at once; and if he ever becomes proficient in vice, he must be led on by insensible degrees, and little by little make advances in the way of wickedness, and in the counsels of the ungodly. This is what is meant by the deceitfulness of sin.… Read More The Successive Steps of Going Astray

New Covenant Tribulations

First, God’s Word threatens plagues and punishments to the disobedient and the transgressors of His commandments. Secondly, because these are the last times, and Satan sees that he has but a short time to continue, therefore he bestirs himself. Thirdly, the church of God has always been subject to the cross, and none must marvel if it be. How can the world love them that hate it and have little acquaintance with it and are on the earth as pilgrims, waiting every day for happy passage through the troublesome sea of this life to their own home, even to the heavenly city of Jerusalem?… Read More New Covenant Tribulations